A few quotes on the theme of judgement and competitions from John Vernon Lord

Most people suspend their judgement till somebody else has expressed his own and then they repeat it. Ernest Dimnet, The Art of Thinking (1928), 3.8.


He hath a good judgement that relieth not wholly on his own Thomas Fuller, Gnomologia (1732), 1882.


In order to judge properly, one must get away somewhat from what one is judging, after having loved it. Andre; Gide `Portraits and Aphorisms', Pretexts (1903), tr.. Angelo P. Bertocci et al.


The ultimate cynicism is to suspend judgement so that you are not judged. Marya Mannes `Introducing Myself', More in Anger (1958).


Competitions are for horses, not artists. Béla Bartok, Saturday Review , 25 August 1962.
A horse never runs so fast as when he has other horses to catch up and outpace. Ovid, The Art of Love , (c AD 8), 3, trans. J. Lewis May.


Examine the contents, not the bottle The Talmud


The value and force of a man's judgement can be measured by his ability to think independently of his temperamental leanings. Algernon S. Logan, Vistas From the Stream .


One can no more judge of a man by the actions of an hour than of the climate of a country by the temperature of a day. J Petit-Senn, Conceits and Caprices .


Had I been judge, thou shouldst have ten more. Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice , iv, 1, 399.


Men judge the complexion of the sky The state and inclination of the day Shakespeare, Richard II , iii, 2, 194.


You are mine enemy, and make my challenge You shall not be my judge. Shakespeare, Henry VIII , ii, 4, 78.


To fear judgement. Shakespeare, King Lear , i, 1, 153.


I see men's judgements are a parcel of their fortunes. Shakespeare, King Lear , iii, 13, 31.
The effect of judgement Is oft the cause of fear. Shakespeare, Cymbeline , iv, 2, 111.


Do you question me ... for my simple true judgement Shakespeare, Much Ado About Nothing , i, 1, 168.


O judgement! thou art fled to brutish beasts. Shakespeare, Julius Caesar , iii, 2, 109.


Beauty is bought by judgement of the eye. Shakespeare, Love's Labour's Lost , ii, 1, 15.
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.


One man's meat is another man's poison. Lucretius, De Rerum Natura , iv, 637.


That word `judgement' hath bred a kind of remorse in me. Shakespeare, Richard III i, 4, 109.

 


A Beauty Contest ; Zeus set up prizes at a baby show for all the animals and looked at every entry critically. Among the others came an ape who claimed to be the mother of a handsome child, nearing on her bosom a naked, snub-nosed pug. The Gods were stirred to laughter at the sight, but mother ape replied: "Zeus knows who'll get the prize, but I know this, my child's the beauty of them all." This fable makes it clear to all, I think, that everyone believes his own child to be handsome.


Babrius, Fable 56 in the translation of B.E.Perry.
The Wolf and Fox are judged by the Ape . A wolf was trying to prove the charge of theft against a fox, and the latter pleaded not guilty of the crime. Then an ape took the chair to judge between them. After each had put the peroration on his plea, the ape is said to have pronounced this verdict: "You, Mr Wolf, in my opinion did not lose the property for which you sue; and you, Mr Fox, I'm sure, purloined the thing you so handsomely deny having taken." Phaedrus, Book 1, Fable 11 in the translation of B.E.Perry.
 

 
TOP LEFT, The Young Hercules facing a Difficult Choice , engraving 17 x 28 cms, by Adamo Scultori c1560.

 

TOP RIGHT The Judgement of Paris Zeus chose Paris (a cattle herdsman) to judge the fairest of the three goddesses - Hera, Athene, and Aphrodite.

TOP LEFT The Judgment of Solomon print by German master 1575

TOP RIGHT R Taylor's irreverent version of the Judgment of Paris (see also Daumier' satirical take on Mythology)

THE ROYAL ACADEMY MAY 1953, SELECTION COMMITTEE